Which do you think are better for you in terms of both weight control and general health, Grape Nuts (nuggets, not flakes) or regular Cheerios?

I LOVE Grape Nuts, and have a eaten at least one cup (2 servings) of them every morning with whole or 2% milk for years. But I'm thinking of making the switch to Cheerios.

Cheerios's serving size is different, and I think that's a psychological help to possibly eating less. If I can live with two cups of Cheerios each morning, as opposed to the one cup of Grape Nuts I'm used to, i will eating 40 grams of carbs and 200 calories of cereal each morning instead of the 96 grams of carbs and 400 calories of cereal I was eating each morning. That's got to be better for fat control, yes?

Am I missing anything here in terms of weight control or general health? Any other factors worth considering?

They're full of both soluble and non-soluble fiber, and are sweetened with just a touch of evaporate cane juice (sugar).

I usually start my day out with a bowl of them and soy milk...
After about six months or so of healthy eating, my total cholesterol dropped from over 300 to 176.

If they're too much for you, the regular Trader Joes Cheerio-type cereal are really good as well. Really good sweetened with a touch of honey... it's what my GF usually starts her day with.

You won't ever want to go back to Cheerios after them. Promise.

Maybe I'll try this stuff someday, but I'm trying to keep it simple right now with stuff I can buy at a bodega or Walgreens if need be. I ain't going over to Trader Joe's, by golly. So Grape Nuts or Cheerios is the question at hand.

Grape Nuts is the Lance Armstrong of breakfast cereals --- no grapes, no nuts, a total deception. Made largely from wheat and barley, no particular health benefits. Cheerios are made from oats, well known to help lower cholesterol and raise HDL, also contains the type of soluble fiber believed to reduce the risk of colon cancer. Grape nuts when wet degrade quickly into a heavy sludge reminiscent of heavily used kitty litter. To me, the choice is clear.

Grape Nuts is the Lance Armstrong of breakfast cereals --- no grapes, no nuts, a total deception. Made largely from wheat and barley, no particular health benefits. Cheerios are made from oats, well known to help lower cholesterol and raise HDL, also contains the type of soluble fiber believed to reduce the risk of colon cancer. Grape nuts when wet degrade quickly into a heavy sludge reminiscent of heavily used kitty litter. To me, the choice is clear.

Yes, but there's something addictive in that kitty litter sludge, I swear... Taste issues aside, if Cheerios are that much better for you, how come Grape Nuts seems to be considered a fairly healthy choice that ranks with cheerios on various "good" cereal lists I've seen?

Quote:

Originally Posted by purple-n-gold

I do a mix of grape nuts and kashi crunch. I'll have the honeynut cheerios occas as a treat, to me theyre more like a sweet snack.

Honeynut cheerios are like crack. I don't think I could have them in the house. (You know, along with keeping the crack out of the house...)

^^ such lists are meaningless unless you know what objective criteria were used to create them.

Meaningless? I doubt that. One can make a reasonable guess that they are using reasonable criteria. If you come across a list of greatest cricket players ever, aren't you going to assume it was compiled in some sort of reasonable way and include the very best players, even if you knew nothing about cricket?

Quote:

Originally Posted by North

I guess you are talking about plain Cheerios. That's the only kind I can keep in the house. I love the Apple Cinammon Cheerios but wind up eating too much cos they are like a snack.

The plain Cheerios are good because they are not like eating hay, which is what a lot of whole grain cereals are like to me lol, and the Cheerios make me feel more sated.

Yes, plain cheerios. The uninteresting kind. I agree nothing else is safe to keep in the house.

For whatever strange reason, I find Grape Nuts highly delicious and addictive, and highly filling as well. They keep me sated for a long time (once I manage to walk away from the box after a couple of bowls, that is.) I'd be surprised if Cheerios have that kind of staying power.

In fact, one of the reasons I'm suspicious of the health benefits of Grape Nuts is because I enjoy and crave them so much. Something that addictive has got to have something bad about it...

^^ No. Never. We see lists of best whatever of the year, best whatever of the decade, see these all the time and many are garbage. Assuming they are valid for no good reason is intellectual bankruptcy.

I dunno, but I think most of the major brand cereals have a bunch of health no-no's in them. Next time I'm in the supermarket I'll actually read the ingredients to be sure. When I think of Grape Nuts or Cheerios, I think Froot Loops would be just as good/bad.

Cereal - I always go for the "natural, organic" crap. Oddly enough, they cost about the same. But not as colorful or tasty as Froot Loops..

^^ You dunno, indeed. Grape Nuts contains wheat flour, barley flour, salt and yeast. Period. Not exactly a load of crap. Cheerios comparable albeit with a small amount of sugar, and the preservative in Cheerios is in fact mixed tocopherols, also known as vitamin E. The problems arise with the dopey kid cereals (like Fruit Loops) where the sugar content goes way up and food colorings come into play.

Assuming they are valid for no good reason is intellectual bankruptcy.

Assuming they are worthless is the true intellectual bankruptcy. In fact, the benefit of the doubt should go WITH a given list, not against it, unless and until proven otherwise. Don't believe it? You should: if you were to examine for yourself the criteria used to create "best of" lists in 100 different categories, you'd probably reach much the same conclusions as the list-makers did 95 of those times.

You think it's sheer coincidence that Grape Nuts keep showing up on "healthy" cereal lists while Froot Loops never do? Or that Rod Laver consistently shows up on greatest tennis players of all time lists, while Tim Henman never does? We don't really need to know the criteria used to accept the findings most cases.

Unless you have reason to be suspicious of any "best of" list, its wiser to assume it's valid than to assume it's "garbage".

Quote:

Originally Posted by slowfox

But not as colorful or tasty as Froot Loops..

If there's a heaven, they will be serving Froot Loops every morning, yes siree.

Grape Nuts is the Lance Armstrong of breakfast cereals --- no grapes, no nuts, a total deception. Made largely from wheat and barley, no particular health benefits. Cheerios are made from oats, well known to help lower cholesterol and raise HDL, also contains the type of soluble fiber believed to reduce the risk of colon cancer. Grape nuts when wet degrade quickly into a heavy sludge reminiscent of heavily used kitty litter. To me, the choice is clear.

Except that it is better that they are made from wheat and barley than from grape nuts. Cheerios may have traces of oats in them so we can draw some parallel with Lance who has traces of many things in him, or has at different times. Cheerios go soggy very quickly and tend to be thrown away quite quickly. Crack may be better value for money.

^^ Ahh, if only it were made from grape nuts, or at least grape seed. Grape seed extract has been one of the supplements in my daily regimen for years, lots of data suggesting it may ward off skin cancers, a good thing for tennis players. One study done 5 or six years ago at University of Alabama with mice showed extraordinarily strong benefit.